Why French Parents Are Superior
Forget Tiger Moms! The secret to raising great, well-behaved kids is ... being French!
Pamela Druckerman explains why French parents are superior:
Why was it, for example, that in the hundreds of hours I'd clocked at French playgrounds, I'd never seen a child (except my own) throw a temper tantrum? Why didn't my French friends ever need to rush off the phone because their kids were demanding something? Why hadn't their living rooms been taken over by teepees and toy kitchens, the way ours had?
Soon it became clear to me that quietly and en masse, French parents were achieving outcomes that created a whole different atmosphere for family life. When American families visited our home, the parents usually spent much of the visit refereeing their kids' spats, helping their toddlers do laps around the kitchen island, or getting down on the floor to build Lego villages. When French friends visited, by contrast, the grownups had coffee and the children played happily by themselves.
By the end of our ruined beach holiday, I decided to figure out what French parents were doing differently. Why didn't French children throw food? And why weren't their parents shouting? Could I change my wiring and get the same results with my own offspring?
Driven partly by maternal desperation, I have spent the last several years investigating French parenting. And now, with Bean 6 years old and twins who are 3, I can tell you this: The French aren't perfect, but they have some parenting secrets that really do work.
If you've got kids that don't listen to you, this is the one post to read today: Link
You Can Really Taste The Dark Side In This Vader Burger
In what is sure to be the wackiest food marketing campaign yet, the French fast food chain Quick have released their Force burgers, to promote the release of The Phantom Menace in 3d.
This bold, and absolutely disgusting looking, burger features a bun that is dyed black, ensuring that only a true Sith Lord will want to have anything to do with it!
What do you think-would you eat a burger with a black bun, or is the color enough to put you off the Vader deluxe?
Taxi Driver Sweded By Michel Gondry
This sweded version of Taxi Driver by director Michel Gondry, of Green Hornet and Eternal Sunshine… fame, shows us what the classic film would look like in a French art house style. It’s schlocky, surreal and a whole lot cooler than the average sweded film, but I wouldn’t expect any less from such a visionary director.
–via Booooooom!
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Bouygues Telecom
(YouTube link)
This French telecom ad features lots of kittens! I don’t know what they are saying, but I love the fish vending machine. -via Everlasting Blort
French Fry Lip Balm
French Fry Lip Balm – $2.95
Attention french fry lovers everywhere! Behold the French Fry Lip Balm from the NeatoShop. This lip balm is perfect for those times when you just can’t get to your favorite fry joint. Pop off the top, lather your lips, and savor that delicious fried potato taste. Life is good!
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more strangely fabulous Lip Balms!
Comments Off Health for Sale
This French medical poster is from a exhibit called “Health for Sale: Posters from the William H. Helfand Collection” currently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Strange how vintage art and the French language can make even syphilis seem somehow more benign. A dozen such posters can be seen at PBS. Link -Thanks, Travis Daub!
Tetris: le Film
Tetris, the game, is the star of a new action film coming to a theater not necessarily near you. Starring la barre! et la croix! It’s in French, but from the looks of the trailer, you won’t have to understand the language to enjoy the action! See the preview at Technabob. Link
Foolishly Seeking True Love
Foolishly Seeking True Love from Jarrett Lee Conaway on Vimeo.
A short, sweet film from Jarrett Lee Conaway about Handsome and Belle, two people that “just might fall in love, if fate doesn’t get in the way first.” With a little help from an omnipresent narrator, they just might.
Survey Reveals The French Seen as Worst Tourists in The World
According to a survey of over 4,000 hotel owners throughout the world, the French are considered the worst tourists in the world. The survey was conducted by polling company TNS Infratest for the Internet travel guide Expedia. What makes them the worst?
“It’s mainly the fact that they speak little or no English when they’re abroad, and they don’t speak much of the local language,” Expedia Marketing Director Timothee de Roux told radio station France Info.
“The French don’t go abroad very much. We’re lucky enough to have a country which is magnificent in terms of its landscape and culture,” he said, adding that 90 per cent of French people did their traveling at home.
“So when they’re on holiday they can be a bit stressed, they’re not used to things, and this can lead them to be demanding in a way which could be seen as a certain arrogance.”
French tourists are also accused of generally spending less than other nationalities when abroad.
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